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I was just looking up myself. The date of the show was Halloween, October 30th, 1938. He was only 23 at the time in the Mercury Theater. You knew about that. What made the difference, instead of being presented like a normal play, Wells and his team staged it as a series of fake live news bulletins. It began with regular music programs, then interrupted with increasingly fantastic reports of mysterious explosions on Mars, a meteorite landing in New Jersey, and finally the annihilation of American cities by Martians, Martian war machines. It was a public reaction, then he listened, tuned in after the program began, and missed the opening disclaimer, which I could see that. Some believe the U.S. was actually being attacked by aliens. But also, it says the newspapers later exaggerated the panic, but thousands of people reportedly called police, newspapers, and radio stations in confusion for fear. Aftermath. Wells initially feared his career was over. I wouldn't doubt that. Was there an FCC back then? Yeah, there had to be. But the opposite happened. He became very famous overnight because of that one radio show. That's what really got his career started, I guess. And now you know the rest of the story. I'm Paul Harvey.

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